This is the best answer. There should not be a 'generally' older people are smarter or age matters. It doesnt always, and it doesnt really matter since no one knows anyone's age on the internet anyway.

This is made necessary by the fact that the 15 year old's argument is often (but not always) a rehashing of an argument discovered by most everyone when they turn 15, but brand new to him because he discovered it independently. I can't tell you how many times I've witnessed someone independently discover utilitarianism. I don't blame them at all of course, it's only natural, and I went through the same thing when I was 15.

In his pride at finally having hit upon a reasonably mature way to contribute to a discussion, he demands a fully detailed and accredited essay from anyone who disagrees with him before he is willing to give credit to what they have to say. It is rare that such a cache of knowledge is readily on hand, however, having passed into common knowledge for most 20-30 year olds. To make matters worse, he is young enough to have nearly unlimited time to compose rebuttals infinite in quantity and length, whereas the 20-30 year olds have jobs and limits on their free time. Hence the need for a shortcut: 'You are too young to understand.'

Kids and teens can be better thinkers than adults. Adults tend to be more stuck in their ways where a kid can adapt better. Generally speaking.

Edit: people seem to be confusing knowledge with being a better thinker. I know nothing about cars. Does that mean someone who knows about cars is smarter than me? No. What I'm saying is it's generally easier to teach your kid about cars than it is to teach your grandparents about computers. A child's brain is just more capable of learning and adapting to what it learns.

Edit 2: Frankly I find it insulting that so many people believe that teens are incapable of thinking for themselves.

Cognitive testing and reasoning/rational testing has shown that individuals in puberty generally don't have the best thinking capabilities. Also in many ways your argument is backward:

Adults tend to be more stuck in their ways where a kid can adapt better.

This is true under the age of 6 and over the age of 21 but in specific contexts. Adolescents focus on problems in terms of specific themes whereas when the brain matures it begins to integrate many different ways a problem can be solved.

That isn't to say that children/adolescents/teenagers don't come up with wonderful ideas many times, but there tends to be much more not-so-great ones mixed up in there that some pretty awkward decisions get made more often.

I was under the impression that, at least according to Jean Piaget, the last stage of cognitive development, the formal operational stage, is complete by around the age of 16, leaving adolescents in their late teens fully capable of logical and abstract reasoning comparable to that of adults. At least, that's what the Psych book said, if I recall correctly.

That's not to say that most teenagers utilize their capacity to think, but I think that it's certainly there, in plenty of cases.

Piaget's work provides an excellent framework for understanding cognitive development but we've made leaps and bounds since his original work thanks to combining scanning equipment tests such as EEG's and fMRI's with questionnaires. One of the examples from developmental psychology that sticks out with this is that in pre-pubescent children and adults, the question "Should you set your hair on fire" yields an instant "NO," and similar areas of the brain become active when this is answered. However, in an adolescent brain there is a slight pause and the prefrontal cortex lights up as if stuck on a theoretical physics question.

Unfortunately Piaget didn't (and Frankly couldn't have) take into account the biological development that is still occurring even into the early 20's, which is when the brain is completing maturity and is becoming less and less plastic in the event of brain injury. This incomplete maturity until 20's has been becoming more of the standard understanding of development and auto insurers are definitely wielding it to full advantage on their premiums!

That's true, however, experience counts for a lot. Ideas can be good but sometimes impractical in certain situations, experience is the key ingredient that let's us know which action is appropriate when.

I hate that that's the solution to this. You can mention that you're 26 on here and no one cares, but if you say that you're younger than 20, people automatically disregard your opinion, whether your age would affect it or not.

Reddit is hardly a bastion of measured intellectualism and dialogical subtlety. Don't get me wrong, your opinions might actually be bad... but Reddit's probably not the place you're going to figure that out.

If you're looking for cats in tiny clothing, though, you're definitely in the right place.

Except for the fact I see more posts complaining about reddit stereotypes than actually seeing posts that conform to a reddit stereotype. Every comments section there is at least one upvoted post about how close-minded and conformist reddit is; it's like a circle-jerk for hating circle-jerks.

Yes, but on the other hand, there are some people on here who aren't total idiots, and it's nice that 15 year olds can have any forum for talking to them. When I was 15 (in 2001) I had no way whatsoever to find out what someone who was 25, 35, or 45 thought about anything at all. We had to figure out why our ideas were so dumb all on our own.

Wasn't there a rage comic a long time ago about a 4th grade teacher who found out his entire class used f7u12? How old are they... Like 9/10? So, 2003 could still be plausible. 2001 is plenty plausible. The problem is, using something like 01 would never look like a year of birth. It just looks like 1 with an extra digit. I totally just defended and attacked my own comment.

Why is it this way? You can still have intelligent thoughts and ideas at a young age, granted they may not be the the most thought out or intriguing. Why don't you just give tips to grow up instead of downvotes to oblivion. It seems we have just been stereotyped into a huge group of douchewads on this site.

The problem is that a lot of younger people meddle in business that they shouldn't be. More often than not, they think they know more than they actually do and that because they went to a bank once, that they know how to properly invest in your 401k.

This is true of everyone, though. It comes off worse if you're young, but everyone seems to think that they know what's right. I think that ageism is horribly under-represented as a major form of stereotyping.

I'm not going to lie - I'm guilty of it myself. However, I rationalize it in my mind by saying that most of the time (confirmation bias kicking in), it's true, so it's not really stereotyping, but rather making an educated assumption based on what I already know about people.

Most of the time, I'll respect an older person until they do something that causes me to lose their respect. Most of the time, I won't absolutely respect a younger person until they do something that causes me to gain their respect. That being said, I still treat everyone with respect.

Why is it this way? You can still have intelligent thoughts and ideas at a young age, granted they may not be the the most thought out or intriguing.

It depends on what the thoughts and ideas relate to.

While (as others have pointed out) the young do not have the handicap of knowing what isn't possible (which allows them to occasionally successfully challenge conventional wisdom), they also usually do not have the experience or breadth of knowledge to understand the ramifications of their ideas or actions.

When you're 15, things seem a lot less complex than they actually are.

Yeah I just don't tell my age and I will have conversations on threads and people talk to me assuming I'm 25+ years old. As long as there's no swag, yolo, or lol's and you know the difference in your, and you're and have a decent and agreeable opinion, people will not assume you're really young.

17 here, I think I've gotten pretty good at the reddit game. Which really is all it is, a game. Wanna get karma on /r/politics? Love socialism. Wanna get karma on /r/guns? Say how important the 4 rules are (they really are though). Bigger subreddits aren't great for giving your actual opinion, they're more like training grounds for social interaction (they help you think on your feet faster, least for me they do). Smaller subreddits are good places for discussing your real and honest opinions.

Don't be discouraged to voice an opinion or idea just because some people on the internet don't agree with you. Young people can often be creative and innovative, even more so then many adults, and if your opinions and ideas can be backed up then age has nothing to do with it.

Don't take the hivemind's opinion as infallible. It is far from it. It is just natural for people to view their opinions as correct, and with a pool of semi-likeminded people, Reddit generally sways certain ways. That does not mean that those ways are right. You have to decide for yourself if they are or not. Taking opinions as fact without deciding on the validity of the information yourself can be a dangerous thing. Of course, that is just....my opinion.

You have to take a grain of salt with the opinions of a person who has only had independent thoughts for just a few years. Especially when the thoughts are generally just echos of the thoughts from the adults that the person looks up to that he or she is emulating and trying to use to define their newly discovered egos with.